Minor fire in Forum Mall

Tense moments gripped customers and shopkeepers at The Forum shopping mall in Koramangala, south Bengaluru, on Monday afternoon when a chimney in a kitchen of the food court on the second floor caught fire and smoke billowed out till the fourth floor.

No casualties were reported and the minor fire was brought under control in a couple of hours. The fire started around 1 pm. K Ashok, a constable attached to the Hoysala patrol car stationed near the mall, called the fire brigade before informing his higher-ups. DCP (Southeast), four inspectors and other policemen rushed to the spot and oversaw the evacuation.

Cinema halls stopped screening the films and all occupants were asked to move out. Nobody was allowed into the mall except firefighters. The mall management had installed fire extinguishers and deployed a trained fire safety team which put out the flames by 3 pm.

Normalcy was restored by 4 pm when the mall was declared safe and shoppers were allowed in. “It was an accidental fire. There were not many people in the mall as it was a Monday. Had the incident happened on the weekend, there would have been panic. Since it was a minor fire which was put out by the mall’s in-house fire safety team, no case was registered,” a senior police officer said.